1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to turbocharger systems and more particularly to a controller for a turbocharger system which augments the performance of an internal combustion engine.
2. Prior Art
One of the limiting quantities in the performance of an internal combustion engine is the amount of air delivered to the intake manifold for the purposes of combustion in the engine cylinders. Since the amount of air necessary for proper operation of an engine is often greater than can be supplied at atmospheric pressure, it is common practice to utilize an auxiliary system for supplying additional air to the intake manifold. A known means for supplying additional air to the intake manifold is a turbocharger.
A common problem associated with engines augmented by turbochargers is that the turbocharger supplies the greatest amount of compressed air when it is least needed by the engine, and the least amount of compressed air when it is most needed. This is inherent in the fact that the exhaust gases which drive the turbocharger diminish in quantity with diminishing speed of the engine. Thus, when the engine is operating at low speed, such as under heavy load, the turbocharger is driven at a slow speed and the amount of compressed air available from the compression stage is minimal. When the engine is operating at high speed, such as under low load, the quantity of exhaust gas is high, thus resulting in high speeds of the turbocharger and a large quantity of compressed air to the intake manifold. It thus becomes desirable to control a turbocharger utilized to augment the performance of an engine so as to deliver large quantities of air to the intake manifold when the engine speed is low and the air is most needed, and less air when the engine is operating at high speeds and the air requirement is not so great.
A further common problem associated with engines augmented by turbochargers and most particularly with turbochargers which utilize a burner to supply heated compressed air from the output of the turbocharger to the exhaust manifold of the internal combustion engine is in obtaining automatically controlled supply of fuel to said burner and automatic spark ignition to ignite the fuel within said burner. It is also desirable to provide control means which turn off the spark igniter once the burner has been ignited by automatic means whereby operator time is not required and operator attention is not distracted from driving, for example, a vehicle utilizing the turbocharger system including internal combustion engine. It would be highly desirable therefore to provide a means for automatically igniting the burner of a turbocharger system as described briefly above when the engine is started. It would be further advantageous if such an improvement would include means for shutting off or deactivating the spark igniter which ignites said burner when the fuel has been ignited thereby. The present invention is concerned with just such improvements.